And pony stuff.

So, this week's new episode....Apparently this season has the subtheme of "let's explore all the different creatures that inhabit Equestria, and deal with them" And apparently that only Ponies have really mastered the art of friendship, judging from the griffons a couple weeks ago (they were all mercenaries who loved only money, at least until Pinkie and Rainbow got there and worked with Gilda....though I expect Gilda would have an uphill climb convincing the other griffons)

This week, it's yaks. In fact, it's Prince Rutherford (oooookay) and two of his bodyguards (? Courtiers? Dudebros? I don't know, it's never made clear)

(I admit to wondering really hard if Rutherford was a reference to something but the only two I can come up with are the chemist Ernest Rutherford, who did a lot of early work in radioactivity, or Rutherford B. Hayes. Neither of whom seem to fit. Maybe Rutherford was a reaction to, "Oh crud, we're making them from a country whose name ends in -stan, so we better not pick a name that would offend people")

Yeah. They're from Yakyakistan, which immediately made me go, "Oh, dear" (Some sources give Yikyakistan, which is unintentionally funny, given that there is a smartphone app called YikYak that some have used to, well, stomp all over the feelings and dignity of others)

The yaks are very picky. And satisfied with nothing - the ponies make the effort to make food as close to "real yak food" as they can, but it's not perfect, so the yaks go berserk and trample the table and also butt the columns in the temple. (If I were Twilight, I'd be getting a structural engineer in there fast).

That's how it goes with EVERYTHING. Applejack sets them up to sort of camp out in the barn, seeing as yaks tend to eschew the "so called finer things in life" and at first the yaks are happy - until they find the hay isn't YAK hay. And so they go berserk again.

Same with Fluttershy and her animals got up in fake yak horns. Same with Rarity and fabric imported from as close to Yakyakistan as is practicable.

I admit this was one of those episodes that made me cringe a little. I've WORKED with people who were like the yaks - oh, they didn't literally trample and destroy when it wasn't *perfect,* but they were very, very fond of letting you know your best effort (often done on short notice and almost no budget) was no good because it wasn't perfect. ("You know, Homer, it's very easy to criticize." "Fun, too!")

And I admit, because I'm a perfectionist, this is one of my issues. To be quite frank, when I do something, it is as close to perfect as it can POSSIBLY be. But sometimes things AREN'T, because, as I said, you're told 4 hours before something is needed that will take 12 hours to do right. Or there's next to no budget and you wind up spending some money out of your own pocket any way.

And this kind of thing frustrates me because, as I said last week, there are times when I feel like I've moved Heaven and earth to do something, and people either seem to act like it's their due, or worse, point out that one tennis ball I dropped and not notice the 14 I am successfully keeping in the air.


The episode also made me twitch because I don't like seeing "my" ponies upset. Twilight is her usual uptight self (ascension to princesshood didn't undo that, though I did note her using the move Cadence taught her, the "take a deep breath and symbolically push it away" - and I have to say, I love those nods to in-series continuity) because she's being asked to do something no other pony has done.

(And again I wonder: is she being hazed by the other princesses? They seem to expect an AWFUL lot of her, for a new princess, and they also seem to step back and let her handle everything. Poor Twilight).

Also, here, Pinkie gets to be angsty, because it turns out the whole deal is now riding on the party she is throwing, and if the yaks aren't happy, they may well declare war. (But hey, no pressure there!)

So Pinkie twitches and gets the shifty-eyes and at one point does the "I'm really at the end of my rope guys and not really holding it together here" laugh.....and then sets off to Yakyakistan (from which no Pony has ever returned) to try to figure out the secret of making them happy. (Best line of the episode: "This burden falls on my rump, and on my rump alone." I'm going to use that someday. Maybe just in my head, but I will use it)

Also: So Pinkie Pie is the pony version of Ringo Starr? That....kind of....works.

But she winds up back home again, through a sledding accident. (I was in a sledding accident once. All I got was a broken nose)

While Pinkie was off on her trek, the other five Ponies wound up in her secret party-planning cave and realized there's more to Pinkie than they thought ("She might be even more organized than YOU, Twilight!" "Hey, let's not get crazy here." You jelly, Twi?)

At one point, where Pinkie has already secretly wound up in the Planning Cave without the others knowing, Rarity makes the comment, "Oh, I wish Pinkie were here so we could tell her how much we appreciate her!"

Now, let me just observe: this would have been a dandy moral to the story right there. (Again, this is "my stuff," to slightly euphemise a phrase a friend uses. But I do often feel taken for granted. I suppose that's because I'm good enough at a lot of what I do that people don't see the effort or the struggle or the very to-the-minute planning and so they do tend to take the stuff I do for granted. But it's nice once in a while to hear it)

It's not the moral, though: the moral is, to make people feel at home, don't try to pander to them too much (or something like that). Don't try to make the foods of their country because they'll never be the same - make them the best food-of-your-country you can.

Or, at least, I think that's the moral. This one was a little confusing.

I also got hung up on this: so the yaks decided to be the Ponies' friends. Okay, then: are they gonna fix or pay for all the stuff they stomped? 'Cos that's what friends do - you break something belonging to a friend, even accidentally, you make it right. But it seems like the yaks didn't face any consequences for their bad behavior earlier.

I also think a dandy moral would have been: you don't have to keep trying to be friends with someone who acts like a jerk to you. I suppose the Ponies were afraid of the yaks or afraid of a diplomatic blunder, but really: letting invited guests destroy first a castle, then a barn, then a boutique, and finally, a bakery, just because things don't suit them?

And another moral that would have been good would have been: "Don't be that guy." In other words, don't be the one who stomps all over the efforts of your friend just because they're not perfect or because they haven't gone quite as far as you think they could have. (In a lot of ways, the yaks are kind of like spoiled children, or the adults they grow up to be....they're ungracious and unable to deal with even minor disappointment and seemingly are totally unaware of the feelings of their hosts....)

I'm waiting with interest the EQD wrap-up of this, to see if I'm totally misreading the moral. But I really would have like to have seen Celestia or someone quietly convincing the yaks to pay for the damage they caused....